Amity AstroTurf Referendum Results

Today, 1,803 voters in Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge went to the polls and rejected a referendum to spend $945,000 installing astroturf at Amity High School. While the turnout was very low by normal election standards, for an off-season referendum, the numbers were higher than many expected.

Based on the chatter around various water coolers, it seems like it boiled down to the fiscal conservatives and the environmental conservatives against the sports parents, with many people not having an opinion, and voting based on the recommendations of their friends.

The environmental conservatives were probably the loudest with comments against the proposal on the Conserve Woodbridge Facebook page, and presumably in backchannels. They expressed concern about fumes and runoff from the artificial turf. The fiscal conservatives spoke up at meetings raising concern about the towns’ debt burdens.

Comment from Nancy Alderman of Environmental and Human Health Inc.:

Artificial Turf Field turned down by voters. Why is this important? This is one of the first instances when the people themselves have been allowed to voice their opinions and vote on whether to install an artificial turf field in their school and town. Usually a small number of people make the decisions — and then the fields get installed at huge expense to the school and the town. Most artificial fields cost about $1,000,00.

You can also see that when people get to choose, they will sometimes choose not to install the synthetic turf field. Some turn it down for economic reasons and some for health reasons.

Environment and Human Health, Inc. has been sounding the alarm about the health risks from artificial turf fields for over 5 years. Each synthetic turf field contains 40,000 ground up rubber tires – all in pea size shapes and all loose in the artificial grass for easy uptake.
Nancy Alderman

Today, 1,803 voters in Bethany, Orange and Woodbridge went to the polls and rejected a referendum to spend $945,000 installing astroturf at Amity High School. While the turnout was very low by normal election standards, for an off-season referendum, the numbers were higher than many expected.

Based on the chatter around various water coolers, it seems like it boiled down to the fiscal conservatives and the environmental conservatives against the sports parents, with many people not having an opinion, and voting based on the recommendations of their friends.